Writing difficult topics

Just in Time, due for release 6 February 2013, wasn't an easy story for me to write. It didn't start out that way. To begin with, I was just having fun and challenging myself to think of something different in Mark's past that he had to deal with. I came up with the theft of his designs and that worked really well.

By the end of the story, though, Mark's history had become deeper and richer in my mind, as had the histories of the other characters, and suddenly I was writing about something darker and farther-reaching than theft. I was writing about long-term domestic abuse.

I know people who profess compassion for those living in abusive situations but who always, at the end of a conversation, say "Why don't they just leave?".

If it was that simple, no one would be living in an abusive situation. Everyone would get out of it the first time someone hit them. Unfortunately, quite often it's a sad fact that by the time the physical violence begins, the emotional and mental abuse is so entrenched, the victims don't even realise it's not their fault and they certainly can't see a way out of it. Often it's the emotional abuse that causes most of the long-term damage. I have some small experience with this - I know exactly how difficult it is to get out, stay out, and then build something different. I know how long that process can take and how bad it sometimes has to get before all other choices are removed.

In Just in Time, Mark has been there, and Jonathan is living it. Liam is trying to help but can only do so much. In the end they're all almost too late.